video/audio recording of live music - who owns copyright?

A friend of mine is a solo musician. As a favor someone he knows offered to record video & audio of my friend performing at a live venue. Since then, they have had a falling out. Musician friend asked me who has rights to the video & audio, but I have no idea. Currently my musician friend has the videos posted on you Youtube account. Just looking for a little help defining the legality of all this. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Paulie

August 18, 2009 @ 7:16amRuthDukelow says:

I think that there are three levels of copyright ownership here, all of which have overlapping rights in the video/audio:
1. Copyright in the original music and lyrics owned by the author/composer (or other person to whom the copyright ownership was transferred).
2. Copyright in the performance of the music owned by the performer.
3. Copyright in the videotape of the performance by the person who recorded the performance.